CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Wyoming police released bodycam video to FOX19 NOW showing the aftermath when a Lockland police officer fatally shot a man along Interstate 75 near the exit to Glendale-Milford Road last week.

It happened after a two-county chase of a stolen vehicle that began in West Chester and ended with the fleeing vehicle crashing in Evendale around 3 a.m. Wednesday, March 19.

No suspects were found in the crashed car, so police began searching the area, according to news releases from both police chiefs in Lockland and Evendale.

Lockland police detained and later arrested and charged one person in connection with the chase, according to Lockland Police Chief Michael Ott. He has declined to release that person’s name and the charges.

Another Lockland police officer driving back from dropping a prisoner at the Hamilton County Justice Center spotted a man walking along northbound I-75, and asked if police were still looking for the crashed stolen vehicle suspects, according to his lawyer, Stew Mathews. Told they were, he stopped to talk to the man.

The officer reported the man was walking toward him with something in his hands and was refusing to obey commands, Chief Ott has said.

“The subject has something in his hands, won’t show me his hands, he’s walking straight at me on 75 North,” the officer said, according to initial emergency communication reports,

Chief Ott wrote in a news release: “The officer attempted to use less lethal force to address the non-compliant suspect but the Taser didn’t stop the suspect. The suspect continued to refuse to obey commands and then the Lockland officer had to resort to his firearm. The suspect was shot in the chest and fell to the ground.”

Sharonville police gave life-saving medical care to the man, later identified as 48-year-old Samuel Mumyarutete of Woodlawn.

EMS arrived and provided additional medical support, however, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

‘Sit in here, don’t talk with anybody, OK?’

The heavily redacted body camera footage released Monday shows Wyoming police speaking to the Lockland officer who fatally shot Mumyarutete after it happened.

Wyoming redacted the officer’s name and face from the video.

“Sit in here, don’t talk with anybody, O.K?” A Wyoming officer says, according to the video. “Just hang tight until the supervisors can arrive, all right.”

No weapon can be seen in the portion of the video released to FOX19 NOW, nor is there mention of it.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean there wasn’t one or the officer didn’t believe there was.

Those details are part of an ongoing investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

All of the facts of the case will eventually be released once investigators have confirmed them.

Lockland and Evendlae police both immediately asked BCI to investigate the police-involved shooting, police and state records show.

If a police officer has an objectively reasonable belief that his or her life or others’ lives are in danger - not whether the person or suspect actually poses a threat - is the legal standard for determining when deadly force by police is reasonable, according to the Supreme Court decision Graham v. Connor.

In the meantime, the officer who shot Mumyarutete is on paid administrative leave, which is customary in these situations.

Lockland also plans to do an internal review of the police-involved shooting, according to a statement from the village on its website last week.

It also says in part:

“We acknowledge the deep impact this has on the family of Mr. Mumyarutete, our officers, and the broader community - especially our growing immigrant community. While we remain in contact with the Mumyarutete family, the BCI Investigation will review all of the events leading up to the shooting during their investigation.”

Lockland’s police chief has declined to release the officer’s name.

“Ohio law limits what identifying information we can release, and we are not permitted to release that information at this time,” the village’s website says regarding the officer’s name.

The Ohio Supreme Court is currently considering whether law enforcement officers can invoke Marsy’s Law, which protects crime victims’ rights, to withhold their names from public records in use-of-force cases.

‘We believe he may have been an innocent bystander’

In a statement to FOX19 NOW early Friday evening, Mumyarutete’s family said they have more questions than answers,

They said he was in the U.S. as a refugee from the Congo, trying to escape a civil war.

He was not fluent in English and often relied on a cell phone translation app, they said.

“Although we know the police were involved in a high-speed chase in the area, we have received no information that our father was involved in any aspect of that chase,” the family’s statement said. “We believe he may have been an innocent bystander.”

The family added that they are “optimistic that there will be a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation.”

At the time of his death, his family was unaware he was released earlier last week from the county jail, the family’s attorney has said.

Woodlawn police arrested him on a misdemeanor assault charge on March 14, police records show.

The assault victim told police he was waiting at a Metro bus stop that afternoon when Mumyarutete approached him and “grabbed him around his collar near his neck and attempted to hit him with a white metal pole,” according to an incident report.

The victim was “visibly upset and shaking,” according to the report, and told police he did not know Mumyarutete.

Woodlawn police took the pole away from Mumyarutete, detained and handcuffed him, put him in the back of a cruiser and took him to jail, the report shows.

The following day, Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Brad Greenberg delayed his arraignment until Monday, March 17 because the court needed a Kinyarwanda interpreter, court records show.

The judge ordered him to remain at the jail for the rest of the weekend on “No Bond.”

When his arraignment was held on March 17, the judge allowed Mumyarutete to be released on his own recognizance (OR bond) but ordered him to stay away from the victim.

A public defender who was appointed to represent Mumyarutete promptly filed court records saying he would claim self-defense.

In response to the family’s statement claiming Mumyarutete “may have been an innocent bystander” in the events leading up to the police-involved shooting, the officer’s attorney told FOX19 NOW Friday night:

“I don’t know that anyone has determined whether or not the decedent was involved with the stolen car/car chase but I believe the evidence will establish that the decedent was not an ‘innocent bystander’ no matter what the circumstances are during his brief interactions with the Lockland police officer.”

Mathews also said the officer is “extremely distraught” over having taken a life but tried to do everything possible to avoid that.

“Like every police officer I know, he signed up to help people. He never imagined that he would become involved in a fatal officer-involved shooting even though all police officers recognize that very real possibility,” Mathews told FOX19 NOW Friday night.

“I would characterize him as extremely distraught over having taken a life but he used every tool that he had to de-escalate the situation and when none of those tactics were effective in the split seconds that this situation was evolving, he did what his training taught him and used the force necessary to stop the threat that he was facing.”

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